Cake, tape and book sales, draws, promotions and special events aren’t the only ways Canada’s pro-life movement is raising funds to combat the considerable and money-laden forces of the anti-life side.

A recent trend has seen increasing numbers of people diverting to the pro-life cause monies destined for flowers at funerals, in memoriams or birthday gifts.

“It happens occasionally,” noted Campaign Life Coalition president Jim Hughes.

“We would encourage more people to do it. It’s nice to remembered in such a way, and ensures that even in death, a person can live on in spirit by helping secure the right to life of future generations of unborn children.”

In recent months, for example, the families of the late Eduard Alexander Kohl and Michelle Mary Fleming asked mourners to make contributions in lieu of flowers to Campaign Life Coalition and, in the latter case, Campaign Life Coalition and the Right to Life Association of Toronto and Area.

Meanwhile, Toronto resident Bill Bennett came up with a novel idea to celebrate his 80th birthday last Sept. 15 – he asked family and friends to donate the money they would otherwise have spent on gifts and cards for him, to the pro-life cause.

“My interest is in pro-life,” he said, when asked about why he made the move. “What good is a present, when you have everything you need?”

The contributions made by the likes of the Kohl and Fleming families and Bill Bennett, are becoming all the more crucial at a time when government policies are becoming more restrictive toward causes such as pro-life (as witnessed by the recent, final deregistration of Human Life International as a charity by Revenue Canada and the Supreme Court, for example), and the fact that pro-life agencies such as Campaign Life Coalition (which operates primarily in the political sphere) are not allowed to issue tax receipts for donations.

On the other side, anti-life groups such as Planned Parenthood (not to mention at least some Canadian abortuaries) are permitted to issue tax receipts, despite the fact that there is copious evidence they are heavily involved in politically charged activities or, at the least, that they attempt to make social changes on a broad scale – ventures that Revenue Canada has otherwise ruled call for deregistration of an organization as a charity.

Once again, despite numerous sacrifices over the years, and a deck that is stacked against them, it appears that pro-lifers – both in life and in death – are going to have to dig down just a little deeper to ensure their cause, and the lives of hundreds of thousands of unborn children to come, has a fighting chance against a bevy of forces arrayed against them.